Tag Archives: nature

November

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We are not hardened yet for winter
though it is November
and trees stand almost bare
and though each day is noticeably shorter
The frost on roofs this morning
met us unprepared
Our bones felt cold,
our flesh tensed up against them

We are not hardened yet for winter
though it’s not as cold as it will get
We have the heat turned up
inside our cozy house
And we turn back like cats
when we go out
No saunters on the sand today —
A brisk walk is required
And even short forays outside
have left us tired

We are not hardened yet for winter
But soon
we’ll open up our doors to what it gives
Feel the brisk cleansing of its mountain breath
that, summoning our inner fires,
calls us to live.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 10, 2012


Season of Rainbows

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It is a season of rainbows

and sun breaks
So unexpected
against the darkness of the day
So easy to miss
in an instant of tunnel vision
And the bright patches
are too small, too short to bask in
Too wet to plan a picnic
or a bike ride
But in the moment
when their resplendent sheen
breaks across my sight
There is a warmth to it
a depth, a lift
that strikes some inner place
hitherto unnoticed
and lights it up.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2012


Balance

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Love, like ocean
has its natural balance
Each patch of water
holds every impulse
of every wave around it
The one that’s rolling toward the shore
The one that’s drawing back across the sand
The one that crashed around the rocks
and is returning
The one that rippled down the sloping land
 
It moves with every one of them at once
No strife, no strain, no clash of time —
The calm absorbing of each motion passing through,
Steady relaying of each arc of truth
 
So love accommodates the waves
Waves of feeling, waves of yearning
Waves of hope sent out beyond awareness
Waves of care, outgoing and returning
 
Love can take no stand, form no opinion
Make no ploy, teach no lesson, put no spin on
Everything’s accounted for, though nothing tallied
Every balance level-true
Each impulse valued
Love needs no decision
as it spaciously makes place
for every true desire
And every grace.
 
©Wendy Mulhern
October 9, 2012
 
 

Gifts

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Sand scoots down the beach

like birds flocking
Catspaws race along the tidal pools
Waves froth white across the swath of ocean
Wind rules

In the quiet dunes
the wind is lighter
Soft sand settles on my face and chest
Moves in starts and stops
to shift within its ridges
Swiftly filling all our footprints in

Huge rocks may be ruins
of what was once a headland
Now they stand like personalities
Faces, figures, spires and arching structures
Sentinels watching at the edge of sea

The grandeur sets our thoughts
to deep reflection
of purposes established before time
The service we were called to
long before this life began
The call that makes us most alive

Sure as these rocks
and all the life they shelter
Sure as this wind, 
Sure as this tide
What calls us here has called us here forever
Our gifts abide.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2012


Day’s End, Bandon

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Shadows pool on sand
between the pooled reflected 
sky collected in the base of
giant rocks collecting darkness

Sun has set
and soon the wind will quiet
though the restless waves
will roar on through the night
Tide will rise and cover
all the places where we walked
in the domain of silent creatures of the sea
Water will flow through the rocks
and seethe and rock and swirl

And the night sea
will soon be seen
by the newly waning moon
And we will sleep
and rise to see it
setting in the morning
not into the sea,
into the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 1, 2012


Lessons

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We are apprentices
to the master ocean
and the master rock shore
performing their dance
in this moment
and in geologic time
The rock turns the water
The water carves the rock
One thunderous curl at a time
While the rock trains it
in swirling, curving arcs

And every move they do is beautiful
The swishes and the swift, explosive leaps
The whirlpools and the rolling falling back
The graceful movement of the currents
rendered still in caves and crevices of rock
We watch, we feel, we are filled
Leap with this power, are carved
by its insistent roar
Find ourselves deepening
opening out
Learning the logic of waves.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 30, 2012


Ocean

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Our union was like
Ocean . . .
Ebullient waves coming
in and in and in
Flipped and turned by rocks, diverting
Cross waves rolling in on top of others
Circling, turning
Flowing back, down and down and down
into the place they meet
the flow of other waves
Fold on fold of froth, pristine and soft

Each one in its time, none in a hurry
Time to find each crevice in the rocks
Time to curl around inside them
Time to flow like waterfalls returning
On and on until the next wave’s crash
White spumes leaping
Water heaving, churning

Our breathing and our flowing 
was like that ocean —
So many separate infinities
crossing one another in a timeless rhythm
So much life, such presence
Such imperative of motion
A place we shall return
time and again.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 30, 2012


Returning

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There is evidence of kindness everywhere
In the undercurrents of life
the breathing and the circulation
the giving and receiving
the ebbing and the flowing
providing every need

There is kindness in the stillness of the stars
and in the waxing moon
and in the season’s turning
Soft fall of darkness
and the leaves’ returning
to the earth

Everything that sets out
comes home sometime
As sure as breath
As sure as tides
It finds its place
in the matrix of kindness
It finds its welcome
rejoins its own.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 28, 2012


Shell

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This gift was forged
In the inimitable act of life
Nothing but life’s intense volition
could bend its forces to such structure,
craft this compact, spiraling container
to fit so neatly in the currents that surround it

Only the imperative of life
could call this genius forth
impel the mastery of this design;
Though it is tossed here empty
we see it still
calling us to wonder:
Long after life has left it
the impress of life’s essence stays.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 27, 2012


Fall Equinox, Home

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My house is cozy
The warmth and the light of it
And the people in it
Our comings and goings
The comfort we give one another

My house is cozy
As the days retreat toward darkness
and the clouds close in
and the house sounds gather
behind closed windows
that muffle the ones outside

It’s a kindly enclosure
Softness and color
Sweetness and sustenance
Loving arms circling
each gift we each bring
All of our rays in concave concentration
magnify richness of home.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 21, 2012